Vadim Shipachyov

Even though they’ll have to compete under a neutral flag and call themselves Olympic Athletes from Russia, the RIHF didn’t shy away from their branding on the release of the 25-man roster. Team Russia is the likely favorite for the tournament, loaded with talent from the KHL including quite a few former NHL stars

2017 has been quite a busy year in the hockey world. There have been several big trades, the first expansion team in over 15 years, and much more. Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis. Next up is a look at May.

Playoff Injuries Abound: As teams continued their chase of the Stanley Cup, their bodies began to break down. As each subsequent round was completed, and teams were eliminated from the playoffs, reports of surgery and rehab surfaced daily. Players like Patrice Bergeron, Tuukka Rask, Jason Zucker, Andrej Sekera and Ryan Johansen all went under the knife in May, with the Anaheim Ducks perhaps announcing the worst of the bunch. Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanenwould both require shoulder surgery, not only putting the start of their 2017-18 seasons in jeopardy but complicating the expansion process for the Ducks. A seemingly inevitable Vatanen trade was put on hold until just recently, when he was sent to the New Jersey Devils for Adam Henrique.

Big Ben In Big D: The Dallas Stars, coming off an extremely disappointing season, decided that something had to be done about their goaltending duo of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi. The Stars went out and traded forBen Bishop, almost immediately signing him to a six-year, $29.5MM contract. Because Bishop was set to become an unrestricted free agent and was coming off one of his worst seasons in the NHL, he cost the Stars just a fourth-round pick. An improvement in Bishop’s play was one of the keys we identified recently for a potential Stars turnaround, after which he immediately posted a 24-save shutout against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Buffalo Gets Botterill: After canning their coach and GM the previous month, the Buffalo Sabres announced that Jason Botterill, formerly an assistant GM with the Pittsburgh Penguins, would be the new man to captain their ship. Botterill had some interim GM experience with Pittsburgh, but had never truly been the head man before and had a tough task ahead of him in Buffalo. The Sabres are once again one of the worst teams in the NHL, but have their star locked up long-term and several blue chip prospects on their way.

Now-former Golden Knights center Vadim Shipachyov wasted little time finding his next place to play as he has signed a one-year deal with SKA St. Petersburg, the KHL team announced. This comes on the heels of him finalizing his NHL retirement back on Thursday. Igor Eronko of Sport-Express in Russia reports (Twitter link) that the contract is worth $500K, well off the $4.5MM cap hit he had in the NHL.

Shipachyov is no stranger to SKA having spent the past four seasons there before crossing the pond to try his hand at the NHL back in May. In 205 regular season games with the team during that span, he had 67 goals and 155 assists.

Things didn’t go as well with Vegas, however. He wound up starting the season in the minors at least in part due to his waiver exemption and while he did get into three games with the Golden Knights, it wasn’t long before he was sent back down and at that time, Shipachyov decided he’d rather return back home than continue to pursue an NHL spot. Doing so will also free him up for the Olympics, assuming the Russian Federation is allowed to participate and the KHL allows its players to go, two things that have come into question over the past week.

Even though the contract is only for the rest of this season, the 30-year-old won’t be able to try to return to the NHL next season. As part of the agreement with him filing NHL retirement papers, the Golden Knights will retain Shipachyov’s rights through his age-35 season and considering how things went the first time around, it’s highly likely that he will opt to stay in the KHL for the foreseeable future.

According to Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Vadim Shipachyov’s deal with the NHL is official. After a negotiation between the NHL and NHLPA, Shipachyov will retire from the league and pay back almost all of his $2MM signing bonus. He’ll move to the voluntary retirement list and his full contract will be cleared from the Golden Knights salary cap. His NHL rights will be retained by Vegas until he turns 35, but will now be allowed to seek out a new contract in the KHL.

The two sides didn’t seek a mutual termination, because Shipachyov would have first needed to pass through waivers and then could have technically been signed by another team in the league. Obviously, the Golden Knights didn’t want to lose the asset to another team for nothing, so a different agreement was made. Like Ilya Kovalchuk, Shipachyov’s retirement will keep him out of the NHL for at least five years though it’s more likely that he’ll never return. After three games and a single goal, the $9MM experiment is over. Interestingly, Vegas GM George McPhee admitted today that they did have a deal in place for Shipachyov to go somewhere else in the NHL, but the player didn’t want that. Shipachyov instead wished to just return to the KHL.

Whatever you think of how this situation was handled, at least Shipachyov can now return home to a league where he wants to play. He obviously didn’t want to suit up any longer in the AHL, and the Golden Knights clearly no longer had him in their top-6 plans up front. Incredibly though, he’ll actually go down with some impressive small-sample stats. Shipachyov scored just the lone goal, but attempted eight shots towards the net and actually won nine of 12 of the 21 draws he took. He’ll finish his three-game NHL career with positive possession stats and at 57% in the circle. Fans will be left wondering if that impact could have been carried out for the entire season, or if he wasn’t ever going to fit in perfectly with the North American game.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see him quickly sign with SKA St. Petersburg again, the team he helped to a Gagarin Cup victory last season. SKA is off to an incredible 28-1 record this season, led by Kovalchuk and Nikita Gusev with 36 points each. Gusev is a name Vegas fans should remember, as his NHL rights are also owned by the Golden Knights. They were acquired as part of the trade from Tampa Bay to get the Golden Knights to select Jason Garrison in the expansion draft, and will be a big story going forward. Gusev is just 25-years old, but has now watched his teammate and countryman go through a trying experience with the expansion team.

Gusev’s KHL contract isn’t up until April 2019, but there was some hope that he would terminate it early in order to jump to the NHL. A seventh-round pick because of the fear he would stay in Russia, Gusev is obviously talented enough to play in the NHL. Last season he scored 94 points in 75 games for SKA, and dominated the World Championships with 14 points in 10 games including a tournament-leading seven goals. You have to wonder how the Shipachyov situation will affect Gusev’s decision down the line.

The deal will have Shipachyov pay back most of the $2MM signing bonus and leave the league, much like Ilya Kovalchuk did previously. His current contract will be voided, but the Golden Knights will retain his rights until he turns 35. That means, if he wants to make a comeback at some point he would need to sign a new deal with Vegas—which seems very unlikely after how this situation has played out.

It seems ever more likely that the one goal he scored this season will be the first and last he’ll ever tally in the NHL, a disappointing ending for a player who was expected to be one of faces of the league’s newest franchise. Now most of the intrigue surrounding Shipachyov will be whether he is selected to play for Russia in the Olympics, something he’s never done previously.

Saturday: The NHL and NHLPA have agreed on a solution that will allow Shipachyov to leave the Golden Knights and return to the KHL, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports. It’s expected that this will be finalized on Monday with Shipachyov filing voluntary retirement papers instead of going through the contract termination process.

Friday: The saga of Vadim Shipachyov still hasn’t come to any sort of conclusion, with the suspended forward back in Russia awaiting some sort of resolution in the fight over his contract. While he’s made his decision to leave the Golden Knights and their AHL team, Vegas has been looking for a guarantee that he won’t be claimed or re-sign with any other team in the league before they grant him a mutual termination.

Now, LeBrun reports on TSN’s Insider Tradingthat this is more than just a fight between Shipachyov and Vegas. Because Shipachyov would need to pay back almost all of his $2MM signing bonus—something that he’s apparently willing and able to do—the NHLPA is involved. The players’ union is “not big on players paying back bonuses” according to LeBrun, and don’t want to necessarily set a precedent like this.

None of this lends itself to the idea that Shipachyov will play in the NHL this season, but it certainly could take a little longer to get an official release. The 30-year old Russian center was a failure in Vegas, though he wasn’t given all that long of a leash in the first place. In just three games with the team, he scored one goal. Perhaps it will be the only one he’ll ever score as an NHL player.

Stanton spent all of last season in the minor leagues, but was once a full-time part of the Vancouver blueline. In 120 career NHL games, the 28-year old undrafted defenseman has just 27 points. If he goes unclaimed (which seems likely) he’ll provide the Bakersfield Condors with some extra experience and depth, something the 3-4 team could desperately use.

Though Eric Engels of Sportsnet is standing by his report that Shipachyov has decided to go back to Russia, Bob McKenzie of TSN now tells us that Shipachyov will not be on unconditional waivers today. He admits it might happen in the future, but the fact that he isn’t just yet does leave a tiny bit of hope for those who would like to see another team in the NHL acquire him. Part of the hold up is likely that Shipachyov will be required to pay back some of his $2MM signing bonus (pro-rated for the amount of contract that is to be terminated), a defense against these very scenarios. Engels reports that that process is underway.

It still seems overwhelmingly likely that the Russian center will return to the KHL this season, ending what can’t even be called a promising NHL career. In three games he scored his first goal, but was then sent back down to the AHL because of a combination of roster constraints and inconsistent play. When he does, watch out for him on the next iteration of the Russian Olympic roster. Though he obviously wasn’t included yet, he will become a candidate for selection as soon as he returns home.

Earlier updates

Though there seemed to be some hope Monday morning when a report surfaced that Vadim Shipachyov’s agent was still talking to teams about a possible trade, that glimmer of hope has been destroyed. Engels reports that the Vegas Golden Knights’ forward has decided to return to Russia, and will be put on unconditional waivers tomorrow in order to mutually terminate his contract.

When the waiver list came out today, it conspicuously did not include the name of Vadim Shipachyov(or any others for that matter). The Vegas Golden Knights forward is currently suspended for leaving their AHL affiliate, and was considered to be a candidate for contract termination. That would require clearing unconditional waivers, but as Eric Engels of Sportsnet reports there remains the possibility of a trade. Shipachyov signed a two-year $9MM contract this summer, but has played just three games for the Golden Knights so far this season.

Shipachyov started the year on the roster of the Chicago Wolves of the AHL due to his waiver-exempt status, but didn’t report to the team for their first few games. Instead, he stayed in Vegas with his family helping them become accustomed to life in the United States. When he was called up to the Golden Knights, he played three games but didn’t make much of an impression on his coach even while the team continued their torrid start. When sent down this time, he first reported to practice before leaving the team once again. He was subsequently suspended, making a bad situation even more tense.

Should the Golden Knights not be able to find a trade partner, a mutual termination of his contract would likely come with a return to the KHL. It remains very unlikely that he would sign a new contract with someone in the NHL this season, though technically that would be a possibility. Engels reported last night on Sportsnet that he believed Shipachyov’s agent Petr Svoboda was still talking with a few teams trying to help facilitate a trade, though it is not clear how close any deal is.

The Golden Knights have recently waived both Jason Garrison and Griffin Reinhart without incident, sending them through to the minor leagues and opening up roster spots. One of those is expected to be used on Shea Theodore instead of Shipachyov, showing that this isn’t just about roster construction. The team has room to bring him back up if they wanted to, but with how he has reacted recently it may have forced their hands.

The San Jose Sharks seem to have faired well on a five-game East Coast road trip and the team is 5-5. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz (subscription required) released his 10 Sharks observations, and is quick to lodge his complaint on the team’s usage of veteran defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who he believes should not be used on the power play any more.

While Kurz writes that he isn’t taking away from Vlasic’s defensive game as he is fantastic at covering other team’s top players, he points out that he is the wrong guy for the power play and has been for some time. Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Vlasic has played 169:25 minutes of ice time on the power play for San Jose, sixth-most on the team. He has one goal and seven assists in those two-plus years on the power play and just a lone assist this year in 25 minutes of power play time.

The team needs to look for a younger defenseman to take over that role on San Jose’s second power play unit and Kurz pointed to rookie Joakim Ryan as a possible candidate. While the 24-year-old has been pointless so far this season, Ryan led the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda in shots on goal last season with 185. His 10 goals and 39 assists last year, suggest he might be able to handle that role.

The Vadim Shipachyov saga isn’t over yet. Expected to skate tonight with the AHL Chicago Wolves after being assigned there Wednesday by the Vegas Golden Knights, the 30-year-old playmaker is not in tonight’s lineup for the Wolves in their game against the Milwaukee Admirals, according to Jesse Granger of The Las Vegas Sun. Chicago has not specified why he isn’t in the lineup. However, according to Sportsnet’s Eric Engels, Shipachyov will not play and is returning to Las Vegas to be with his family. He did practice with Chicago yesterday, which is why he was expected to play today. The KHL veteran had been assigned at the start of the year to Chicago, but didn’t report and Vegas allowed him to stay in Vegas. However, there is no indication the team had planned to allow him the same courtesy this time around.

The Anaheim Ducks announced they have reassigned center Kalle Kossila and defenseman Steven Oleksy to the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. Two moves had to be made after the team activated both Sami Vatanen and Ryan Miller for tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Kossila, played in two games for Anaheim this week, putting up a goal and an assist. The 24-year-old had two goals and four assists in five AHL games. Oleksy was called up Thursday, but did not play. The 31-year-old blueliner has two goals and two assists in five games for the Gulls.